urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-38ec41bf-1707-4611-9e09-dcc2fb5ebe03The Invisible Thread - Tags - ibm-i The Invisible Thread provides thought leadership, expertise and use cases focused on IBM DevOps and Continuous Engineering capabilities.03012017-09-25T10:16:51-04:00IBM Connections - Blogsurn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entry-5088b5e9-7297-423b-914d-1919550c6587RPG Language and the ARCAD-Rational Power Pack advancementsErikaHorrocks270004AK9XactivefalseErikaHorrocks270004AK9XactivefalseComment Entriesapplication/atom+xml;type=entryLikestrue2013-10-14T15:55:33-04:002013-10-14T15:55:33-04:00<p dir="ltr">
<b><i>And continuing the celebration of the 25<sup>th</sup> anniversary of IBM i</i></b></p>
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by Bill Smith, IBM Rational software</p>
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At the end of May, in a post about making the move from v5r4 to newer versions of IBM i, I wrote:</p>
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This year as we celebrate the 25<sup>th</sup> anniversary of IBM i, we are proud to note how vital and modern this platform truly is.</blockquote>
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I went on to note a number of investments Rational had made in support of ensuring that IBM i remains relevant and vital. Things like Open Access RPG Edition, full-featured modern IDEs, and the ARCAD-Rational Power Pack.</p>
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Today I&rsquo;m happy to be able to add a big, bold exclamation point onto that earlier post, by announcing the introduction of two important advancements:</p>
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greatly expanded support of free-form syntax in the RPG language</li>
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a significant new version (and new name) of IBM ARCAD Pack for Rational.</li>
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The modernization of RPG by expanding free-form support is of particular significance to customers in their efforts to recruit new development talent to create, maintain, and extend RPG applications. Here are some supporting details:</p>
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the update will be initially delivered later this quarter in the form of a PTF associated with Tech Refresh 7 of IBM i 7.1. In 2014 it will become fully incorporated into the 7.2 version of Rational Development Studio for i</li>
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the update will deliver support for the use of free-form syntax for H, F, D, and P specs (C specs have already been supported for several years)</li>
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the support is provided both in the RPG compiler itself, and in the SQL pre-compiler</li>
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We are also announcing that we have worked closely with our business partner ARCAD to deliver a new fixed-to-free form conversion utility, to complement the new language support. It will support conversions for C, H, F, D, and P specs and will be packaged as a separately purchasable component of the ARCAD Pack for Rational offering. As such, it is sold and supported by IBM.</p>
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And in a further enhancement to the ARCAD Pack for Rational, it will now be possible to obtain the complete interactive client capabilities of ARCAD Observer (again as an independently purchasable component of the Pack). ARCAD Observer, if you don&rsquo;t know, is a very strong tool for application understanding and visualization and something that many customers should be pleased to know is now available as an IBM-supported offering.</p>
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<img src="https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/invisiblethread/resource/ibmi.jpg" /></p>
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Happy 25<sup>th </sup>!!</p>
And continuing the celebration of the 25 th anniversary of IBM i by Bill Smith, IBM Rational software &nbsp; At the end of May, in a post about making the move from v5r4 to newer versions of IBM i, I wrote: This year as we celebrate the 25 th anniversary of...004831urn:lsid:ibm.com:blogs:entries-38ec41bf-1707-4611-9e09-dcc2fb5ebe03The Invisible Thread2017-09-25T10:16:51-04:00